Sunday, January 15, 2012

Even as people were dying, the official lies about the Hillsborough Disaster started. Fans were massed outside the 1989 football match with minutes to go until kick-off, so police ordered gates open and there was a crush that pinned people up against the fences at the front of the crowd.

Watching it unfold from the police control box the man who'd ordered the gates open, Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, told officials that the gates had been forced open by fans. Afterwards, laywers and senior police edited hundreds witness statements to remove material damaging to the police.

The inquest into the 96 deaths made two indefensible decisions that served to cover up the truth. They ruled that everybody had died of the same cause, traumatic asphyxia, and they decided that everyone was dead by 3.15pm. This latter decision meant that any evidence from after this time was not admissable and so was kept from the public.

At a stroke this denied any place for a vast array of accounts from medical professionals, police and others who had seen people suffer and die after 3.15. It meant that nobody got to question why the police would not let ambulances into the ground.

Fifteen year old Kevin Williams was pulled out from the crush alive at 3.28pm. An off-duty police officer who found a pulse at 3.37pm tried to flag an ambulance down. Kevin was saveable, but they cordoned off the care on the day.

Kevin's mother Anne has long campaigned for a new inquest into her son's death. The evidence is extremely strong, both that he was alive after 3.15 and that he died from other injuries than traumatic asphyxia; injuries that could have been treated.

If a new inquest rules that these things are indeed true, it means the original inquest is proven false. This, in turn, means a reopening of the inquest into the other 95 victims and a demolition of the cruel whitewashed stonewalling that the families of the victims have faced for so long.

Here's where you come in.

Anne Williams has launched a government e-petition to force a parliamentary discussion of the case. A previous e-petition asked for disclosure of Cabinet files relating to Hillsborough. A four hour Commons debate and unanimous vote agreed. Even though it will expose police and politicians lies, there is huge momentum for the truth about Hillsborough to be revealed. How long that momentum will last is unknown; certainly, our best shot at proving that the inquest was a cover up is this petition that has only days to go.

There needs to be over 100,000 signatures to force the parliamentary debate. There are 25,000 on Kevin Williams' petition and only four days left.

This is not about football. This is about justice. This is about holding the state and its agents to account for a massive arse-covering abuse of power. If you are a British citizen or UK resident you can sign the petition here. It needs to be done - signed and the confirmation email clicked - before 19th January.